Attack on Irish Street condemned

Police are investigating criminal damage caused to 30 cars parked in the Bann Drive/Sheskin Gardens area sometime between 1.30am and 10am on Sunday (10). The damage consisted of scratches to the paintwork of the vehicles.

Local unionist politicians and loyalist groups suggest the attack was sectarian.

UUP Alderman Mary Hamilton condemned the wanton vandalism saying elderly residents were living in fear as a result of ongoing disturbances at the Irish Street/Top of the Hill interface.

"I totally condemn it. I know a lot of the people in Irish Street - many of whom are senior citizens - and they are totally sick of this.

"I've been working to help one woman who lives at the top of Irish Street who is over 90 and is no longer happy there because of the trouble.

"She loves the area but has been paying to go in and out of a nursing home. It's not on."

DUP MLA William Hay lives in the area. "There have been ongoing attacks within the area where people are coming into the area late at night and leaving like thieves," he said.

"It seems to have all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack."

A spokesman for the loyalist Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) - affiliated to the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) - also branded the attack an instance of "mindless and blatant sectarianism."

David Malcolm, Regional Secretary of the UPRG in North Antrim and Londonderry visited the area and spoke to local residents on Sunday.

He commented: "This attack unfortunately signifies a continuation to the sectarian attacks meted out on the Irish Street Community by a section of the Republican Gobnascale Community.

"There is a palpable anger in the Irish Street Estate and throughout the Loyalist Community in the city as a whole, not only at these continued attacks, but also the inability of CCTV cameras at the top of Bann Drive to identify the perpetrators and to bring them in front of the Courts."

Mr Malcolm claimed republicans from Gobnascale walked past security cameras into Irish Street Estate, where they set about the cars using nails and other metal objects.

He said attacks like these were making it difficult for people in the area to support the forces of law and order.

"It is becoming harder to ask residents to continue to support the Police and the use of intrusive CCTV when they fail to deliver justice for those who are the victims of crimes like this," he said.

"We saw this summer - as in previous years, gangs of republicans able to walk into the estate to attack housing and vehicles - and it is pensioners who live right at the interface who are baring the brunt of these attacks!"

The UPRG said a pathway between Shepherd's Glen and Irish Street was allowing youths enter the estate and called for it to be sealed by fixed gates in order to prevent another interface being created.

The organisation also called for an end to all sectarian attacks.

Mr Malcolm stated: "The vast majority of residents in Gobnascale and Irish Street do not support them and they do nothing but bring shame on the perpetrator's own community.

"I will also be asking for a meeting with the PSNI Area Commander as a matter of urgency this week to discuss the situation and to see what additional measures we can collectively offer to help make the Residents of Irish Street feel safer."

SDLP councillor Gerard Diver said: "It is an absolute disgrace that this large number of vehicles, almost two dozen, were targeted in what appears to be a co-ordinated rampage of destruction.

"It is very hard to imagine what goes through the mind of someone who engages in this criminal activity, and if the motivation is sectarian - as it being suggested, then it is all the more despicable.

"I would appeal for anyone with information regarding these attacks to pass it on to the PSNI immediately.

"The community need to send out a very strong message that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated in Derry or elsewhere."

Sinn Fin councillor Lynn Fleming said small unrepresentative groups of people were causing "absolute mayhem" on both sides of the interface.

"There have been a number of incidents in our own area directed at local residents.

"Unfortunately, there has been a small group causing absolute mayhem. These people are not representative of the community," she said.

Anyone with information about who was involved is asked to contact police at Strand Road or a member of the local Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0845 600 8000.

Alternatively information can be passed on anonymously through the "Crimestoppers" charity on freephone 0800 555 111.